New office for gastric bypass patients opens

Operation in Victoria has number of clients in Corpus Christi area

Citizens Bariatric Center in Victoria has extended its operations
into the Corpus Christi, opening a consultation office at Bay Area
Medical Center on Friday.

About 100 of the 300 patients surgically treated since 2000, when
the Bariatric Center first began performing gastric bypass surgeries,
are from Kingsville, Alice, Port Aransas and Corpus Christi, said Dr.
Dean McDaniel, medical director of the facility.

One physician and three support personnel will staff the Corpus
Christi office on Fridays to track the progress of existing patients
and accept new ones, McDaniel said.

"We've been serving the Corpus Christi area for about five years
now, and it has essentially taken us to a place where we need to
provide a better outside service to that patient base," McDaniel
said.

On its first day, it already had a full schedule of appointments, he
said.

South Texas, including Nueces, Kleberg, Jim Wells and San Patricio
counties has a higher rate of overweight and obese residents than the
statewide average. In South Texas, the rate is 65.7 per 100,000 people
compared with the statewide average of 61.3, according to a 2000 report
surveillance report from the Texas Department of State Health
Services.

The Bariatric Center program targets obese populations that are
considered to be clinically severe, McDaniel said. An obese individual
is 100 or more pounds over the weight thought to be healthy for their
height, he said.

McDaniel said he hopes to see the center's patient base in Corpus
Christi grow by 10 percent to 15 percent each year.

Patient Fay Derise of Corpus Christi had her bypass surgery in
January 2004, and as her weight dropped the first changes she noticed
were improvements in her health.

"All my diseases went away," she said, citing diabetes and acid
reflux among others. She was taking 28 pills a day when she was 276
pounds. Today, Derise said, her weight fluctuates between 115 and 120
pounds and she is on two medications plus supplements.

"I have people tell me, 'You don't ever look like you were heavy,'"
Derise said.

The Bariatric Center has existed since 1998 and has been accredited
by the American Society of Bariatric Surgery, an organization that
governs weight loss centers nationally.